Coldest Places on Earth Found - In Antarctica
With remote-sensing satellites, scientists have found the coldest places on Earth, just off a ridge in the East Antarctic Plateau. The coldest of the cold temperatures dropped to minus 135.8 F.
Where is the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth?
"It's in Antarctica of course," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., said here today (Dec. 9) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
That temperature? A mind- — and body-numbing — minus 136 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 93.2 Celsius), measured in pockets scattered near a high ice ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, two summits on the East Antarctic Plateau.
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The temperature measurement came from the most detailed global surface-temperature maps made to date, which were created using data from the new Landsat 8 satellite, launched in February, and 32 years' worth of data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites and instruments aboard several other satellites.
Researchers began looking at these frigid pockets after they noticed cracks in the snow between large snow dunes on the plateau and wondered if super low temperatures might be creating the cracks by causing the snow on the surface to shrink. This led them to begin the search for the coldest places on the planet. [In Photos: The Coldest Places on Earth]
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Cold, colder, coldest
They turned to the temperature records from the satellites, whose instruments measure the thermal radiation emitted at Earth's surface. The coldest temperature they found occurred on Aug. 10, 2010 (winter in the Southern Hemisphere). The temperature is essentially the same "as if you were to take your hand and put it on the surface of the snow. I don't recommend that, as, in this case, that would be colder than dry ice," Scambos said. It's "50 degrees colder than anything that has ever been seen in Alaska, or Siberia," he added.
The temperatures in these pockets are able to drop so very, very low thanks to a combination of circumstances. Scambos and his colleagues think the stage is set for these record lows when clear skies above the domes cause the air to get colder as it radiates heat away to space. As the air near the Earth's surface gets colder, it also gets denser, and begins sliding down the dome, until it encounters one of these pockets, where it can become stuck. As it sits there possibly over several days, the air keeps radiating away heat and becomes colder and colder, until it reaches the record lows observed by the satellites.
Prince Harry joins Walking with the Wounded team members, on the island of Spitsbergen, between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole March 29, 2011. This November the team will trek to the South Pole.
In November, Prince Harry plans to walk 200 miles to the South Pole as part of a race for charity with disabled veterans. To prepare for the trek, he recently spent 20 hours in a special chamber that was cooled to 30 degrees below zero. Inside, the prince and his team exercised and slept as manmade winds gusted up to 45 miles per hour.
Harry's long night in the freezer may have offered some mental benefits, giving him practice with his gear and confidence that he will be able to survive the trek. But, experts said, enduring one night of cold months before a sub-zero event is unlikely to help anyone’s body prepare for an extended adventure near the poles.
In fact, studies show that it often takes weeks for our bodies to adapt to cold temperatures. Even then, the human body is far worse at acclimatizing to frigid conditions than it is to heat or altitude.
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"Ultimately, we are a heat-adapted species," said Josh Snodgrass, an anthropologist at the University of Oregon, Eugene. "Even populations we think of as quintessentially cold-adapted, like Siberians or the Inuit, are not that far removed from human ancestors that adapted to heat. Our bodies are just not as good at dealing with cold."
Anyone who lives in a seasonal climate goes through the adjustment process every year. After a long, hot summer, the first few chilly days of fall are a shock to the system -- and the feeling is only partly psychological.
When you're not yet used to cool temperatures, your body reacts in several ways. First, it shivers, which is a useful -- if uncomfortable -- way of generating warmth. At the same time, blood vessels that lead to the extremities constrict as the body prioritizes sending blood to the core and keeping the essential organs warm. The result is cold fingers that don’t work as well as they should and aching toes that feel like ice cubes.
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Over time, and that generally means several weeks, the human body adjusts to cold by dulling the shivering response. It also gets quicker at finding a balance between vessel constriction and dilation, allowing both the core and the outer shell of the body to stay warm. This process of habituation helps explain why temperatures that seem shocking in November can actually feel good in March.
Lab experiments -- along with studies of surfers, long-distance swimmers and people who live subsistence lifestyles in extremely cold places -- show that the human body can also adapt in deeper ways when exposure to cold is extreme and long lasting.
After enough time in the cold, for example, resting metabolism ramps up to a higher level so that the body produces more heat. In people exposed to the most extreme chills, like pearl divers in Korea and Japan who regularly plunge into waters as cold as 50 degrees F without a wetsuit, the body actually refines its ability to insulate itself by redistributing heat.
"That's hard to develop and takes a lot of repeated exposures," said Michael Sawka, a physiologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Big chunks of the eastern and central United States lie blanketed in a mass of Canadian Arctic air that has driven temperatures way below freezing and caused the deaths of at least four people in the Midwest. Experts say that cold can kill, even in moderate weather, and is especially lethal for the elderly, young children or people compromised by alcohol or drugs. While the human body does a pretty good job keeping itself warm, prolonged cold can lead to hypothermia, which occurs when the body’s core temperature drops below 95 F.
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When the body loses more heat than it can generate, things go wrong. In fact, one of the first things to go haywire is judgment. In the first stages of hypothermia, victims may lose the ability to think or move — both are necessary for survival outdoors — and may not even know they need help. Frostbite to the fingers and toes follows as the body shunts warm blood from the extremities to the core to protect its organs.
Symptoms of hypothermia include drowsiness, confusion, weakness (“I think I’ll sit down here and rest a minute”) as well as pale skin and uncontrolled shivering, according to the National Institutes of Health. If you don’t get treatment, your body slows, heart rate diminishes and it isn’t long before your entire body shuts down and eventually goes into cardiac arrest. The good news is that hypothermia is preventable with proper clothing (non-cotton layers, hat and gloves) and staying inside during extreme weather.
Experts say booze and cold weather don’t mix. Drinking can actually speed hypotheria because it takes blood away from the organs and sends it to the skin. That cools the heart, brain and internal organs even quicker. Smoking also interferes with circulation. For more tips on what not to do, check out Jack London’s harrowing 1908 short story “To Build a Fire” about a Yukon traveler lost in the snowy wilderness.
Extreme Cold Weather Survival Tips
It is more difficult for you to satisfy your basic water, food and shelter needs in a cold environment than in a warm environment. Even if you have the basic requirements, you must also have adequate protective clothing and the will to survive. The will to survive is as important as the basic needs. There have been incidents when trained and well-equipped individuals have not survived cold weather situations because they lacked the will to live. Conversely, this will has sustained individuals less well-trained and equipped.
Weather Survival
You must not only have enough clothing to protect you from the cold, you must also know how to maximize the warmth you get from it. For example, always keep your head covered. You can lose 40 percent to 45 percent of body heat from an unprotected head and even more from the unprotected neck, wrists and ankles. These areas of the body are good radiators of heat and have very little insulating fat. The brain is very susceptible to cold and can stand the least amount of cooling. Because there is much blood circulation in the head, most of which is on the surface, you can lose heat quickly if you do not cover your head.
There are four basic principles to follow to keep warm. An easy way to remember these basic principles is to use the word “COLD.”
C: Keep clothing clean
This principle is always important for sanitation and comfort. In winter, it is also important from the standpoint of warmth. Clothes matted with dirt and grease lose much of their insulation value. Heat can escape more easily from the body through the clothing’s crushed or filled up air pockets.
O: Avoid overheating
When you get too hot, you sweat and your clothing absorbs the moisture. This affects your warmth in two ways: dampness decreases the insulation quality of clothing and as sweat evaporates, your body cools. Adjust your clothing so that you do not sweat. Do this by partially opening your parka or jacket, by removing an inner layer of clothing, by removing heavy outer mittens or by throwing back your parka hood or changing to lighter headgear. The head and hands act as efficient heat dissipaters when overheated.
L: Wear your clothing loose and in layers
Wearing tight clothing and footgear restricts blood circulation and invites cold injury. It also decreases the volume of air trapped between the layers, reducing its insulating value. Several layers of lightweight clothing are better than one equally thick layer of clothing, because the layers have dead-air space between them. The dead-air space provides extra insulation. Also, layers of clothing allow you to take off or add clothing layers to prevent excessive sweating or to increase warmth.
D: Keep clothing dry
In cold temperatures, your inner layers of clothing can become wet from sweat and your outer layer, if not water repellent, can become wet from snow and frost melted by body heat. Wear water-repellent outer clothing, if available. It will shed most of the water collected from melting snow and frost. Before entering a heated shelter, brush off the snow and frost. Despite the precautions you take, there will be times when you cannot keep from getting wet. At such times, drying your clothing may become a major problem. You can place damp socks or mittens, unfolded, near your body so that your body heat can dry them. In a campsite, hang damp clothing inside the shelter near the top, using drying lines or improvised racks. You may even be able to dry each item by holding it before an open fire. Dry leather items slowly. If no other means are available for drying your boots, put them between your sleeping bag shell and liner. Your body heat will help to dry the leather.
A heavy, down-lined sleeping bag is a valuable piece of survival gear in cold weather. Ensure the down remains dry. If wet, it loses a lot of its insulation value. If you do not have a sleeping bag, you can make one out of parachute cloth or similar material and natural dry material, such as leaves, pine needles or moss. Place the dry material between two layers of the parachute material.
Top Cold-Weather Tools
Other important survival items are a knife; waterproof matches in a waterproof container, preferably one with a flint attached; a durable compass; map; watch; waterproof ground cloth and cover; flashlight; binoculars; dark glasses; fatty emergency foods; food gathering gear; and signaling items.
Remember, a cold weather environment can be very harsh. Give a good deal of thought to selecting the right equipment for survival in the cold. If unsure of an item you have never used, test it in an “overnight backyard” environment before venturing further. Once you have selected items that are essential for your survival, do not lose them after you enter a cold weather environment.
